BruceyB

Imagine the Pokes' coaching staff pulling up in this fit. To any of the older generation guys, no coach actually wore a singlet in practice did they?

Yes, I agree. I realize that in my previous post I only acknowledge Ferrari forcing their hand, while it could have also been Gabe believing he is best at 174. I'm curious how the goes in the room are between Nelson, Arnold, and Kennedy. A part of me wondered when he was going 184 this year instead of 174 was because it wasn't a given that he would beat out Nelson or Kennedy for the spot, so he decided to get bigger and just stay at 184 after performing well there last year while undersized. How lucky we would be if more coaches would just tell you their roster plans like Coach Dresser.

I mean, it depends on the definition of "hands were tied." The subject has be talked about ad nauseum, and we all know the arguments for and against pulling the RS. The only scenario I see where their hands would be tied is if Ferrari was threatening to leave if they didn't let him compete for the spot. I just don't see the coaches choosing to pull his RS for a slight upgrade. FWIW I think Kennedy could very will be a top 5-6 guy in his own right at 174 this season. The transfer rules really do give the athletes all of the power in RS/etc decisions because if they don't get what they want, they can just transfer to somewhere that will give it to them.

It still begs the question, is Arnold going down to 174? If so, I would be very curious to know if it was the coaching staff's idea, or if Gabe just feels that he could perform better at 174.

First step is making the lineup. Alex Facundo was #2 on Flo's 2021 Big Board and has yet to AA. Hamiti and Caliendo were both ranked lower coming out of high school. All three wrestled 165 at NCAAs in 2023, and only the guy who went to Penn State failed to place, and then hasn't been able to make the starting lineup since. So maybe take the guy from PSU 9 out of 10 times? I don't see how Sealey makes the lineup next year. His best chance is if he can make 57 and beat Kasak, which is quite a feat, and it's not going to get any easier the following year.

I'll admit you can probably say that in 2024, but that shouldn't discount the past. Before Brian Smith took over at Missouri, their best finish was 10th in the early 80s and there were very often finishing outside of the top 20. Smith and his staff have been able to take solid, but often not "can't miss" recruits and consistently develop them into AAs, and national champions. Ben Askren was their first ever national champion in 2006, and that was really a big turning point for the national awareness of what was going on at Missouri. Schwab and co. are obviously doing very well at N. Iowa, and this may be their best overall team during Schwab's tenure. Pat Pop, Kevin Dresser, and Brian Smith would be my votes for guys that do the most with their recruits. They don't have the funding to play with the real blue blood programs, or many in the big 10 when it comes to the transfer portal, but they do an incredible job at developing their recruits, and have made their programs into very fun, and very relevant programs. It's not very often a school rises from relative obscurity to a consistent top 10 program. There are a number of other coaches that I think are certainly in the discussion, but these would be my top three.

No love for Jake Schwartz?

Hardy seems to be an outlier on your list.. just curious why he makes it in?

Joey Dance was a lot of fun to watch.

My only question is whether or not it benefits the smaller programs financially to wrestle, and especially host Penn State. I know in football the bigger schools pay the smaller schools for the matchup.. so despite losing 70-0 to Georgia, NW Georgia State make a sizeable chunk of money that helps sustain their program. If you wrestle Penn State and get a share of the streaming/B1G money, it could be good for the sport, but I don't see how watching 10 pins/techs is fun for the fans, even if you're a fan of PSU..

Yes, that's what wrestling needs.. most talent accumulating at fewer schools..

Just a random question.. seeing that I've never been able to find anything connecting Beric to the rest of the Jordans that wrestled for St. Paris Graham, I'm assuming it was just a coincidence that he wrestled at SPG and shares the same last name?

No. 4 Nebraska 9, No. 10 Northern Iowa 24 125: Trever Anderson (UNI) dec. #5 Caleb Smith (NEB) 5-2 (NEB 0, UNI 3) 133: #20 Jacob Van Dee (NEB) dec. Julian Farber (UNI) 5-0 (NEB 3, UNI 3) 141: #8 Cael Happel (UNI) dec. #5 Brock Hardy (NEB) 7-5 (NEB 3, UNI 6) 149: #5 Ridge Lovett (NEB) dec. #17 Colin Realbuto (UNI) 12-9 (NEB 6, UNI 6) 157: #5 Ryder Downey (UNI) dec. #3 Antrell Taylor (NEB) SV-1 5-2 (NEB 6, UNI 9) 165: #21 Jack Thomsen (UNI) dec. Christopher Minto (NEB) SV-1 4-1 (NEB 6, UNI 12) 174: #17 Lenny Pinto (NEB) dec. #16 Jared Simma (UNI) 6-5 (NEB 9, UNI 12) 184: #2 Parker Keckeisen (UNI) pinned #5 Silas Allred (NEB) (3:38) (NEB 9, UNI 18) 197: #15 Wyatt Voelker (UNI) dec. #22 Camden McDanel (NEB) 6-4 (NEB 9, UNI 21) HWT: #16 Lance Runyon (UNI) dec. #23 Harley Andrews (NEB) 11-6 (NEB 9, UNI 24) Quite the performance for UNI. Runyon wrestling 165 as a true FR, 174 as a fresh and soph, hurt last year, and now wrestling well at 285 is crazy.

It is truly an embarrassment of riches. I can't imagine any college roster has ever had close to the talent that is amassed on this PSU team. Nagao is an AA and I kind of doubt he beats Davis even if healthy, Joe Sealey in RS, Ryder in RS, The Mirasolas in RS, Facundo can't get into the lineup.. That's 6 wrestlers that will likely be AA contenders from the moment they step into a starting role. Seeing Barraclough go to UT Valley and currently ranked 4th in the country has to have Facundo considering a move. It's only going to be harder to get into the starting lineup next year.

Agreed. It's hard to imagine any team not named Penn St, Iowa, or Ok St realistically being a title contender in the foreseeable future. Between their HS recruits and financial ability to fill in gaps through the portal, they aren't likely to have many, if any holes in their lineups. The fact that Iowa has 2 noncompetitive weights this year is pretty shocking. Ohio State has a ton of talent, but unless they have the funds and are able to bring in high level transfers, I just don't see think any team able to compete for a national title just based on their high school recruits.

Ah, agree completely.

Yes, it's definitely for the best for the parents to stay off the message boards.

I'd be very interested to see what Cole Mirasola weighed in at this morning. Curious to see how big he'll be able to get for next season.

It's fair to criticize an athlete when they don't show effort. Stewart gave up the second Ryder stopped him when he was looking to roll through. Not even a kick of the feet before the pin. I also wish him the best and hope to see him round back into form.

Oh, give me a break. You think someone that wants to wrestle in college is going to leave the sport altogether because Kerkvliet is 256 pounds? D1 wrestlers are a different breed, they are going to make the best of their situation regardless of the weight. The argument should strictly be on creating more equity for the tweeners, and stop with this argument about these supposed wrestlers that are leaving the sport because of the weight class.

The first half of every NCAA season is pretty boring IMO. You might get a handful of interesting duals, and CKLV. Even if their are a number of top 10 matchups, they are spread out over several weeks and several events. The B1G duals are basically the best part of the regular college season. With guys only wrestling 20 matches during the regular season, there just aren't that many great events where a lot of top guys are present at the same time.

You're walking back your words now. You originally said that Brooks was closer to being a gold medalist. That obviously infers that he would beat Yazdani. Don't play ignorant.

Ramos and Glory were closer to winning the 2023 title seeing as Spencer wasn't in the finals, the others are irrelevant as they also lost in the finals or before and were also on the backside. You understand the concept of an upset, do you not? If a match was wrestled 10 times between Lee and Ramos, Spencer might damn well might have won 9 of 10. But guess what, that doesn't make him closer to winning a title until his hand is raised.. If we want to go through history and throw out all of the upsets because "so and so was closer to winning" because they were a favorite, then lets just draw up the brackets and not bother wrestling them.

Last I heard it's hard to win gold when you lose in the semis.. You could argue that Brooks would win more gold's versus the field if they wrestled it 10x than Spencer was, but then I would still say you're wrong because Spencer was a takedown away from gold IIRC. Brooks lost to Ramazanov who isn't very close to a healthy Yazdani. The simple fact is that on the day that mattered, Spencer had a chance for gold in his final match, aka closer. Whereas Brooks was wrestling for bronze, which is further away. This is terrible comparison. In match play golf, the entire strategy is to beat your current opponent, not try to score the lowest overall score. If you have a lead early, you're likely going to play safer shots and be content with pars rather than try to take riskier shots in hunt of birdies. It's like saying someone who wins a match 16-14 is better than someone who wins 4-1, because they scored more points, even though they likely only scored so many points because their opponent kept scoring as well. In one match, you had to keep pressing for points, the other you could stay within yourself and cruise to a controlled victory. That's far from a perfect analogy as their is no traditional offense/defense in golf, but I think it at least gives some insight for anyone unfamiliar with match play. Beside the fact it's not a good comparison, the conversation is not about who is better, it was about who was closer to winning gold in Paris. In your scenario, I would still the player that made the finals was closer to winning the tournament since he was in the final match.

I'd probably move 205 to 210, but sign me up.